Time-Based Rule Activation and Deactivation

Feature Summary and Revision History

Summary Data

Applicable Product(s) or Functional Area

P-GW

Applicable Platform(s)

ASR 5500

Default Setting

Disabled - Configuration Required

Related Changes in This Release

Not Applicable

Related Documentation

Not Applicable

Revision History

Revision Details

Release

With this release, Time-Based Rule Activation and Deactivation feature is supported.

21.10

First introduced.

Pre 21.2

Feature Description

The 3GPP specification 29.212 allows Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) to send a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule, along with Network Time Protocol (NTP) time, at which the rule is activated through Rule-Activation-Time AVP. In earlier releases, StarOS installed the PCC rule when the PCC rule was received with Rule-Activation-Time. StarOS also created a dedicated bearer, if required, to reserve the network resources. This approach led to the wastage of the network resources and their unavailability in several scenarios, such as:

  • When Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) sent a PCC rule.

  • When a PCC rule has the Rule-Deactivation-Time AVP, the rule remained installed even after the rule deactivation time completed.

To elimate the wastage of network resources and utilize them as required, the Time-Based Rule Activation and Deactivation feature is developed. With this feature:

  • You can install time-based PCC rules after Rule-Activation-Time.

  • You can remove time-based PCC rules after Rule-Activation-Time.

  • Predefined and dynamic rule maintain their existing behavior.

  • Session Recovery and ICSR are supported.

How It Works

The following section provides an overview of the time-based PCC rule activation and deactivation feature.

Architecture

To configure time-based PCC rule activation and deactivation, StarOS saves these rules separately till the rule activation time. When the rules are activated, they are processed and installed as PCC rules. A dedicated bearer is created, if required. The deactivated PCC rules are removed to generate a request to update or delete a bearer.


Note

This feature is CLI-controlled to maintain backward compatibility.

Rule Modification Scenarios

When a PCC rule is available with Rule-Activation-Time, StarOS verifies if this feature is enabled or disabled. If the feature is enabled, StarOS does not install the PCC rule immediately. When the Rule-Activation-Time times out, the PCC rule is installed.

Following are some of the rule modification scenarios and the StarOS behaviour in these scenarios:

  • If PCRF modifies the rule, for which the timer is running, then StarOS stops the existing timer and starts a new timer by using Rule-Activation-Time.

  • If the rule modification does not include Rule-Activation-Time AVP, then StarOS installs the rule immediately. In this scenario, Rule-Activation-Time is not carried forward.

  • During the rule modification of time-based rules, parameters of the rules are not merged. It implies that only the parameters that are received in the latest definition are applied.

    For example, a time-based rule is received with definition rating-group as 500, charging-id as 10 and Rule-Activation-Time as T1. After some time (before T1), the rule is modified with a new definition of rating-group as 400 and Rule-Activation-Time as T2, then after T2, the rule is installed with parameters rating-group as 400. Here the charging-id is not received for T2 and parameters rating-group has no charging-id.

Default Bearer QoS Change

A subscriber has default bearer QoS as QCI_8. PCRF sends the Rule1 rule with QCI_5 and Rule-Activation-Time as T1. Before T1 expires, the default bearer QoS is changed to QCI_5. After T1 expires, the Update Bearer Request is sent on the default bearer to install the Rule1 rule.

Call Flows

Following call flows show the handling of Rule-Activation-Time and Rule-Deactivation-Time.

Rule-Activation Time Configuration

Following call flow shows the handling of Rule-Activation-Time:

In this call flow, no bearer is available with QCI_1 QoS-Class-Identifier. If a bearer with QCI_1 is available, then Update Bearer Request is expected after the T1 timer expires.

Rule-Deactivation Time Configuration

Following call flow shows the handling of Rule-Deactivation-Time:

In this call flow, the bearer with QCI_1 QoS-Class-Identifier has only one rule, which is Rule 1. In case of multiple rules on the bearer, an Update Bearer Request is expected after the T1 timer expires.

Configuring Time-Based Rule Activation and Deactivation

This section provides information on the configuration of CLI command to activate and deactive a time-based PCC rule.

Configuring Time-Based PCC Rule

Use the following configuration commands to configure time-based PCC rule.

configure 
   require active-charging 
   [ default | no ] policy-control time-based-pcc-rule install-on-activation-time remove-on-deactivation-time 
      end

Notes:

  • default : Resets the command to it its default setting—Disabled.

  • no : Disables the time-based activation or deactivation of a PCC rule.

  • policy-control : Configures the ACS Policy Control.

  • time-based-pcc-rule : Configures the PCC rule with activation or deactivation time.

  • install-on-activation-time : Installs the PCC rule only on activation time.

  • remove-on-deactivation-time : Removes the PCC rule on the deactivation time.

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Show Command(s) and/or Outputs

This section provides information about show commands and the fields that are introduced in support of time-based PCC rule activation and deactivation.

show active-charging sessions full callid callid

The output of this show command has been modified to display the following fields for Time Based PCC Rule:

  • Installs Deferred

  • Total Time Based Pending PCC Rules

show active-charging service statistics

The output of this show command has been modified to display the following fields:

  • Time Based PCC Rule Statistics

    • Dynamic Rule

      • Activation-Time Received

      • Deactivation-Time Received

      • Removed received before Activation

      • Removed due to Deactivation

    • Predefined Rule

      • Activation-Time Received

      • Deactivation-Time Received

      • Removed received before Activation

      • Removed due to Deactivation

show active-charging subscribers callid callid pending-pcc-rules

The output of this show command has been modified to display the following fields:

  • CALLID

  • Dynamic Charging Rule Definition(s) Configured

    • Name

    • Prior

    • Content-Id

    • Chrg-Type

    • Rule Parameters

  • Status

  • Service Identifier

  • QoS Class Identifier

  • ARP Priority Level

  • Reporting Level

  • Metering Method

  • Uplink MBR

  • Downlink MBR

  • Uplink GBR

  • Downlink GBR

  • Rule Activation Time

  • Rule De-activation Time

  • Filter 1

  • Direction

  • Protocol

  • Dst Addr

  • Filter 2

  • Direction

  • Protocol

  • Src Addr

  • Predefined Rules Enabled List